


Flat Mates

by afteriwake



Series: A Past Love [10]
Category: Doctor Who, Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-05
Updated: 2012-07-05
Packaged: 2017-11-09 06:18:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/452280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Now that John’s moved out he’s rather lonely, but Amelia has a suggestion to fix that problem, one he’s thought about a few times himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flat Mates

Sherlock felt rather lonely in the flat by himself. John had upped his plans to move out and live with Molly upon their daughter’s birth, and while John was there to help on cases and Molly brought the baby with her sometimes to visit, it wasn’t the same as having someone else living there. He suddenly knew exactly what Amelia felt like, being in a place that was too large for just one person.

She had mentioned the possibility of selling her home and moving someplace else, and he had thought that, perhaps, it would not be a bad idea if she moved into the flat and shared it with him. But he didn’t tell her this because she would see it as too forward and breaking the rules of their friendship. It would work, though. She could handle him.

“I’m selling my home,” she said one afternoon as she was sitting in John’s old chair, about a month after John left. “It’s been almost three months since I got back and it’s just too big, and there’s too many memories. I want a fresh start.”

“Have you found a place to go to yet?” he asked.

She was quiet. “Okay. _Hypothetically_ , if I were to, say, ask Mrs. Hudson about taking John’s old room, would that be making it hard to just stay friends?”

He nearly dropped his teacup. She couldn’t possibly have said what he’d been thinking in his head for the last three weeks, since she first mentioned the possibility of selling her home. “What?”

“You know, it’s a stupid idea,” she said, shaking her head. “Never mind.”

“On the contrary, I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “I’d been thinking that myself for a while.”

“We’d need a whole new set of ground rules,” she said slowly. “And that’s if it’s still available. For all we know someone else could come by and take it before I get everything on my end sorted out.”

“No, it’s still available. She’s tasked me with finding a replacement for John. I really hadn’t wanted to.” He looked at her. “But you are right that we would need new ground rules. We’ve done fairly well with the ones we have, so it would just be additions.”

“Yeah,” she said with a nod.

“But I would like to ask you something.”

“Sure.”

“Why do you want to move here?”

“This has become more of a home than my own home,” she said with a smile. “And at first I thought it was because of John and Molly being here, but he moved out, what, a month ago? And I come when they’re not here and it still feels like home. It feels the way my home used to, comfortable and lived in.”

“Ah,” he said. “And you can handle the mess and the way this room is?”

“I like it. It’s got its own charm,” she said with a grin. “I may add a painting or two to the walls, and if you shoot bullet holes into them I’ll kill you, but I don’t want to keep a lot of my old stuff. I already sold my old bed to Molly because hers was only a full and I’d had a king. I know there are some people who didn’t really want to give me back the things they got in our wills and I’m willing to give that stuff back. I want a fresh start.”

“Then I think it could work,” he said.

“There’s one thing I need to tell you first,” she said, looking down, “and I have to break one of the rules. But before you decide if you want to live with me, I want you to know because it concerns you and me way back then. And you have every right to know.”

“All right,” he said. He watched her closely, watched as she played with her fingers for a moment before taking a deep breath.

“Melody was not the first child I got pregnant with. She’s just the first one I carried to term. I got pregnant when I was fourteen and I miscarried when I was a month pregnant.” She didn’t look up, and he was almost thankful because he knew he looked shocked. This was surprising news, and in the interest of full disclosure he was glad she told him. He worked very hard to get himself under control and succeeded just as she did look at him. “The only person who knew was Aunt Sharon, until I told Molly about a month ago. Rory never knew, and if River ever knew it had to have been someone else who told her.”

“Ah,” he said.

“So if this changes things, I’m sorry. I’ve kept it secret for a long time, and I wanted to tell you before we decided if we could stay in the same place together.”

“Do you want the truth?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” she said.

“This doesn’t change my opinion of you in the slightest. You were only fourteen, and I should have been more careful. I’m sorry you had to go through it alone.” She looked like a weight had been taken off her shoulders. “When I was younger I think I would have been happy to be a father. I think my life would have been very different, but I would have done my best to take care of you both, if that would even have been an option.”

“It probably wouldn’t have,” she said with a sigh. “I know my aunt would never have made me have an abortion, but I would have had to give the baby up when it was born. And you wouldn’t have been eighteen yet. You really wouldn’t have been able to take care of a baby.”

“Then perhaps it was for the best,” he said. He didn’t want to think about the images that flooded his head, of her pregnant with his child. That was not an option right now, if ever. He needed to keep a tight hold on keeping those images away. But he did feel sadness at knowing he might have been a father, even if he wouldn’t have been able to care for the child.

“Is me moving here still an option?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied, and in his heart he knew he could handle her being here, even with the new information.

“Can I break another rule?” she asked.

“Which one?” he replied.

“Hugging,” she said.

He nodded, and sat up on the couch. She went over to him and put her arms around him, and he responded in kind and held her close. He really didn’t think that differently of her, at least in a bad way; he rather admired her for having to deal with it on her own and not letting it stop her from having a good life afterwards. But she had lost two children, and that was hard enough for any person to bear, let alone the mother. They stayed like that for some time when she lifted her head up and looked at him. “Yes?” he asked.

“Can we take no hugging off the list of rules?” she asked. “I’ll avoid kissing you on the cheek still, but…this feels nice. John’s hugs and Molly’s hugs aren’t the same.”

“How do you mean?” he asked as she sat up more.

“I don’t think I can explain it,” she said. “When they give me a hug it’s nice and I love them but when _you_ give me a hug I feel like I’m getting some of your strength and that I can stand on my own two feet again afterwards.”

“We can amend that rule,” he said with a nod. She pulled away completely and he had to admit that that was probably one of the nicest compliments someone had paid him in a long time, considering she seems to be the only person he would willingly hug. “What new rules do we want to add?”

“If we’re out here we need to be dressed somewhat modestly. John told me about the sheet incident.”

He smiled slightly at that. “So nothing skimpy for you, then.”

“I sleep in a tank top and yoga pants these days. My skimpy stuff will stay in a drawer until I get a boyfriend,” she said. He noticed she did not specify that the boyfriend might be him, and that was rather damning. “Besides, if I end up dating you I’d like to have _some_ surprises when you’ve seen me first thing in the morning getting a bowl of cereal.” Immediately he felt better.

“All right, what else?” he said.

“Can you cook?” she asked.

“Not particularly well, no,” he admitted.

“Then I’ll cook for both of us, but you help cover the cost of food. If you’re going to help eat it you’re going to help pay for it. You get one shelf for your mad science experiments because I like having a lot of food available.”

“I can agree to that,” he said. “Anything that saves me from an endless array of take-out.”

She grinned. “No going in each other’s rooms without being invited, and even then, only one person on the bed while we’re both in there.”

“I can see the logic in that one,” he said with a nod. “I have an addendum to that rule.”

“Okay.”

“No being in each other’s room at obscene hours in the morning. If you have a nightmare and want to talk we’ll do it out here. I doubt you would find sitting in my chair to be all that comfortable and if I’m up I’ll most likely be out here anyway.”

“That works for me,” she replied. “No temptation that way.”

“One other rule, but you’ve dealt pretty well with this one already. When I have a case do not disturb me.”

“Then my addendum to that is unless I ask you a question or bring you into a conversation don’t bother me when I’m cooking.”

“That works for me. Any other rules?”

She thought about it. “You don’t drink alcohol, do you?”

“Not really.”

“Then we don’t need to worry about drunk rules. I think we’re good for now. If anything comes up we’ll just add them later.” She held out her hand to him. “Shake on it?”

He shook her hand. “Welcome to 221 Baker Street.”

She grinned at him. “Thank you, future flat mate.”

He grinned back slightly. “When do you think you would be moving in?”

“I’ve been packing up some stuff the last few weeks to donate or give back to people who got it when everyone thought I was dead. I guess a couple of weeks? Not sure. I’d much rather start sleeping here sooner rather than later.”

“I’ll help,” he said.

She blinked. “You’re volunteering to help me pack? Are you sick or something?”

“I don’t have a case and it will keep me from getting bored,” he said with a slight shrug. “Plus I doubt you’ll be able to get John and Molly to help, and are you really up to packing your entire house up by yourself?”

“No,” she admitted. “But you haven’t been in my house.”

“I broke in when I found your photograph,” he said.

“Fine, you haven’t been in it since you rescued me. Are you sure you want to see all about my life?”

“I won’t have a problem with it,” he said.

“Okay. Fine, you can help me pack. I’ll pick you up tomorrow at nine.”

“I can take a cab,” he said.

“I’m trying to save you some money. Thank me,” she said, swatting at his shoulder. “Nine, okay?”

“Nine it is,” he replied.

“Good. I’m hungry. How about you?”

“I could use some dinner.”

“Did John leave any food?”

“Some.”

“Is it still good?”

“Mostly.”

“I’ll see what’s left and try and make some dinner. This is a free meal. Enjoy it while you can,” she said as she got up and went into the kitchen. He found himself with a slight smile as he watched. It was going to be very interesting having her under the same roof with him, and it would be a true test of willpower. But he found he hadn’t had something to look forward to of this magnitude in a long time, and he was actually excited. This could be very interesting indeed.


End file.
